#finallyfast.com

I'll bet you've heard of FinallyFast.com before. Their ads are almost inescapable if you watch a good amount of prime time tv. You know, the commercial that offers to optimize your PC's performance if you decide to download their application? “My computer is fast…Finally! FinallyFast.com!” You may have even heard that FinallyFast.com sells “registry cleaning” software. What a lot of people don’t know is what FinallyFast.com or registry cleaners actually do! The purpose of this short article is to change that. With this short article I'll explain, in laymen's terms, precisely what a registry cleaner is and in what way it may help speed up your computer’s performance. So what exactly is the registry of the pc? You can imagine your computer's registry is like a small filing cabinet filled with all of the music, videos, and documents you hold on your computer. Much like a filing cabinet within a busy office, with time the files in your registry can get mixed up. Empty files that at one time kept a particular application that's been discarded may still remain. As with a secretary at an office, once the files in the registry get jumbled it requires more time for the computer to get the documents you are looking for. Using the FinallyFast.com registry cleaning software is like having the office secretary go through the filing cabinet and do a little spring cleaning. The FinallyFast.com software will go through and locate all the mixed up and unused files inside your registry and place them in the right location or possibly delete them if they are not needed. This makes it a lot less difficult for your computer to pull up your files. Making the overall process of bringing up the documents you need significantly faster! The best part about the FinallyFast.com application is that it makes the process of maintaining your PC's registry effortless. Obviously, you could potentially open the computer’s registry yourself and fix the errors and delete unnecessary entries, but that can take time, and quite often it is difficult to determine which registry entries are valid and which are not. Your PC's registry is full of loads of of entries. If you’re curious, check it out yourself: 1. Click on Start 2. Click Run 3. In the box enter "regedit" 4. Hit enter This will pull up the Pc registry editor. Take a look around. The majority of people wouldn’t have any idea where to start to clean up their own registry. You would need a fairly advanced level of technical aptitude and familiarity with computers. The FinallyFast.com registry cleaner takes the learning curve away from repairing your registry. It will do all the work of identifying which files are mixed up, leading to glitches, or are extraneous. And the program will lead you through the whole process. With merely a handful of clicks your registry, and yourPC, will be back to top condition! FinallyFast.com also offers a totally free performance scan on their website. The scan will show you the total number of current errors and unwanted files there are in your registry. This will advise you as to whether or not registry errors are indeed the issue slowing down your PC. Should you find a lot of registry errors, fixing them is as simple as clicking on the “buy now” button at the bottom of the scan. Simple, right? I really hope during the course of this article we were capable of explaining the way in which a registry cleaner, such as the application available from FinallyFast.com, may help improve your computer’s operation. For more information about registry cleaning programs we suggest visiting FinallyFast.com.

(News from Finallyfast.com)

Reacting to the negative responses and speculation about security vulnerabilities, Facebook quickly suspended its new program to share users' personal information with app developers.

Four days after Facebook announced it would allow developers to access users' mobile phone numbers and home addresses, in an effort to facilitate app creation, the company rescinded the program, apparently in response to security implications.

"Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data," Facebook spokesman Douglas Purdy wrote on the company's Developer Blog. "We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so. We’ll be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready. We look forward to re-enabling this improved feature in the next few weeks."

The original program allowed developers to view users' personal information as long as that user approved of it. This, according to Facebook's original announcement on it's developer blog, was enough to ensure privacy in the overall program. Also, the social networking site emphasized that the program would share individual users' information, and not that pertaining to their Facebook friends.

Soon after the company announced the program, security researchers criticized the company, providing some of the feedback Facebook may heed while updating the developer program.

"It won't take long for scammers to take advantage of this new facility, to use for their own criminal ends," security expert Graham Cluley wrote in a security firm's blog post. "Wouldn't it be better if only app developers who had been approved by Facebook were allowed to gather this information? Or - should the information be necessary for the application - wouldn't it be more acceptable for the app to request it from users, specifically, rather than automatically grabbing it?"

In the most recent blog post, Facebook maintained its position on the security and privacy standards imposed over the program.

"As with the other information you share through our permissions process, you need to explicitly choose to share this data before any application or website can access it, and you can not share your friends’ address or mobile number with applications," Purdy wrote.

If the company can make the adjustments the security industry is calling for, the program could be beneficial to both app developers and Facebook users. According to Purdy, allowing developers to access mobile phone numbers and addresses could facilitate ecommerce on Facebook apps, providing the resources for mobile alerts for online deals or automatic checkout.

Oh, Finallyfast.com. This infomercial is a dear old friend of mine. I've written a little post about this in an older iteration of this blog (if I can find it, I'll re-post it here), basically pointing out how much of a bastard the kid complaining to his mom is, and wondering how airplanes grunt (just watch it, you'll see what I mean).

Anyway, Ascentive, the company behind FinallyFast, is a scammy outfit of people who want you to believe that your computer is a ticking timebomb that's ABOUT TO EXPLODE INTO DEADLY SHRAPNEL ANY SECOND. Unless you give them money. Here are a few of their questionable practices, from the Attorney General's press release:

Misrepresented that consumers’ computers are at risk of harm through banner ads that resemble warning messages, pop-ups and graphical images.

Sent deceptive e-mails that suggest the company’s software is recommended by Microsoft.

Offered free scans that were bundled with other programs that launched excessive pop-up warnings and nagging alerts until the user either purchased the company’s product or uninstalled the software. The scans often identified harmless files as errors.

Failed to disclose that by downloading one program in its suite of services, an additional program – essentially an advertisement for other software products – would also be installed.

Added additional products to orders during the checkout process. Consumers had to uncheck boxes next to the products in order to avoid being charged.

Failed to clearly disclose that consumers who purchased products were actually buying an annual license and would be automatically billed each year unless they cancel.

Made it difficult for consumers to cancel orders or obtain refunds.

This is why you always contact your local geek rather than some late night infomercial.

According to Assistant Attorney General Jake Bernstein, the company was peddling scareware -- software that always found severe problems no matter what the condition of the computer being scanned. "They basically crossed the line in terms of advertising to consumers," he said.

In court documents, the Washington attorney general's office said that until March 2009, Ascentive's free scan software came with adware and endless, annoying pop-up warnings that exaggerated problems on the computer. "The free scan categorizes everything that it identifies as an 'error,'" the filings state.